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Carpet spot remover

Treating pet stains between professional cleanings

I felt inclined to write this post after a series of jobs we had this week in which it seems the pet had won the battle over its owner. As a guess I would say close to 90% of my customers have a dog or cat including myself. This year we lost 2 dogs that we loved dearly but were just very old, and as dogs and cats get old or become sick they will have accidents on the carpet. I know this, so there is no reason to be embarrassed if  you find yourself in this situation, even the most well trained dogs run into problems sooner or later.

When we get into a situation where we are dealing with an older dog or maybe even trying to train a brand new puppy it may not be feasible to call the professional out every time an accident happens. Although I love my customers and their business I understand that could get expensive for them. So I will share a few tips to try and help everyone get by in between cleanings, these tips help us and you.

One thing I hear quite often upon arriving at a job is that my customer had a spill or their pet had an accident… not surprising, it happens to us all. What does surprise me sometimes is what they spray on it. Twice this week I had customers tell me they cleaned stains in their carpets with Windex, I’m not really sure why, maybe Windex wrote a blog that told them it was a good idea or maybe that’s all they had. But in both cases it did not work, or they thought it worked until the stain re-appeared a couple of days later. There are many products around the home that can be helpful for removing stains such as vinegar and water solutions, baking soda, borax, dish soap, peroxide and so on. For pet urine there are some decent over the counter products in the big box pet stores such as Natures Miracle or Folex. The one product carpet cleaners cringe when they hear it is resolve, carpet cleaners around the globe agree that this product can really set in a stain.

 

Now here’s my biggest tip,  no matter what home remedy you find on the internet or what spotter you buy in the store, without extraction you are leaving behind whatever you are trying to clean out as well as the sticky residue from the cleaning agent you are using. This is why spots “wick” back or re-soil from soap residue. Having said all that, I am a big fan of the Bissell home spotters for quick little clean-ups, but I am not a fan of the larger home carpet cleaners because they are just not powerful enough to do large areas without leaving behind dirt and chemicals, causing rapid re-soiling. The little machines are great for concentrating on small clean-up’s but there are a few things to know…when it comes to using any cleaning agents, more is not better. Rinsing well in a necessity but even more important is getting your spot to dry as fast as possible by doing many, many extra dry strokes and putting a fan on it. The spot bot by Bissell has a rotaing brush that you just put over the spot and let it run for a minute, I much prefer the hand held wand on that machine over the rotating brushes, I have seen many circles left in peoples carpet from those.  The Bissells do run about $100 to $150 for the spot machine but is well worth having one in the house, or if you already have a wet/dry shop vac that would work too,  just remember to take out the paper filter first, and you will need a spray bottle of clean rinse water if using the shop vac.

I confess, even having  a 26 horsepower truck mounted cleaning machine in my driveway I still use the spot bot to clean up little spots between cleanings. Oh…I almost forgot, after using your spotter machine it is most important to clean them very well or they will smell real bad next time you go to use it.

I gave this advice to one of my customers last year and when I went out to clean her carpets yesterday she thanked me soooo much for telling her about the spot bot. She has four dogs and this kept her carpets in a much better shape throughout the year.

I hope these tips get you through until your annual cleaning!  Rinse those spots, don’t just spray with Windex and leave.

-Pete & Re-Pete

spotter and stain remover

Pet odor and stain remover

small spotter ideal for quick cleanups between professional cleanings